Cooking with AllSpice mushrooms

This week, we’re shining a spotlight on AllSpice’s gourmet mushrooms. Small but packed with rich flavor, dried mushroomsare a cook’s secret ingredient: they add texture and a deep, fragrant flavor to sauces, soups, and stews, to risottos and pasta dishes and more.

How do you use them? First, hydrate dried mushrooms in your choice of liquid. Hot water works fine, but broth, red or white wine, beer, or other liquid is even better, as the mushrooms take on some of the flavor of the hydrating liquid.

Then, after the mushrooms soak (for at least 15 minutes), drain them, reserving the liquid. Give one of the pieces a little taste: if it is gritty, you’ll need to rinse the mushrooms after soaking. After that, use them however you would normally use fresh mushrooms. The reserved liquid can be used in deglazing saute/fry pans, or reduced in a sauce, added to soup, etc.

You can also leave the mushrooms dehydrated: grind them in the blender or food processor to add a little umami to other dishes, in barbecue rubs, and in sauces. You can even make ground dried mushrooms into a unique pesto with sauteed onion, garlic and herbs.

What do I cook with them? You can use dried mushrooms in lots of ways:

soak, drain and use in place of fresh mushrooms

mince and add to stuffing, rice, potatoes, or other soft foods for extra umami

sauté mushrooms and serve with steak

rehydrated, sauteed, and tossed with pasta

in your Chicken Marsala

perfect in risotto

the texture of rehydrated Shiiatake (pictured, right) mushrooms are a fantastic base for a vegan chili